Korean political veterans call for constitutional reform

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Korean political veterans call for constitutional reform

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 17:42

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Former lawmaker Chyung Dai-chul, who heads an association of past National Assembly members, speaks at the launch ceremony of a campaign for constitutional reform at Seoul Station on March 5. [NEWS1]

A bipartisan group of Korean political veterans launched a campaign for constitutional reform at a ceremony at Seoul Station on Wednesday afternoon.

The movement aims to collect signatures from the public to demonstrate popular support for amendments that would reduce the power of the presidency in the wake of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law at the end of last year.

The ceremony was attended by former lawmaker Chyung Dai-chul, who heads an association of past National Assembly members; former prime ministers Kim Boo-kyum and Lee Nak-yon, who served under former liberal President Moon Jae-in; and former conservative party leaders Kim Moo-sung and Hwang Woo-yea.

“A constitutional amendment that would redistribute the powers of the current imperial presidency is the national task of these times and the demand of the people,” Chyung said as he called on the public to “participate in the founding of the 7th Republic.”

Free and direct elections, as well as the restoration of civil and political rights, were instituted during the last substantial revision of the Korean Constitution in 1987, giving rise to the current 6th Republic.

The association headed by Chyung, which styles itself in English as the Parliamentarian’s Society of Korea, currently advocates the establishment of an upper house for the National Assembly and allowing presidents to serve up to two four-year terms instead of a single five-year term, as is the case now.

Wednesday’s ceremony took place a day after Chyung and eight other senior politicians urged current lawmakers to embrace constitutional reform during a two-hour debate held at Seoul National University.

Speakers at the event urged the Democratic Party (DP), and its leader Lee Jae-myung in particular, to commit to amending the Constitution in the event of an early presidential election, which would take place if the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment.

“At present, the DP leader and his party’s lawmakers are the ones who are best-positioned to carry out constitutional reform,” said former lawmaker Kim Chong-in, who served as leader of both the DP and the conservative People Power Party (PPP) at different points in his career. “If these people do not actively participate, nothing will happen.”

The DP controls 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, while the PPP holds 108 seats.

While participants largely agreed that changes are necessary to prevent the kind of gridlock that preceded Yoon’s martial law declaration, their ideas on how the Constitution ought to be changed differed substantially.

Current and former politicians call for constitutional reform on the steps of Seoul Station on March 5. [NEWS1]

Kim argued tensions between the country’s executive and legislative branches could be reduced by replacing Korea’s current presidential form of government with a parliamentary system or by holding presidential and parliamentary elections at the same time.

In parliamentary democracies such as Germany and Ireland, the chief executive governs through a legislative majority, while the president serves as a mainly ceremonial head of state with only a few reserve or emergency powers.

Although former Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo acknowledged that a parliamentary system “could solve the problematic cycle of imperial and lame-duck presidencies,” he expressed concern about the lack of time to institute such a sweeping change before an early presidential election.

Kim instead called for a semi-presidential system as found in France and Poland, whereby the president is expected to govern alongside a prime minister who derives their position from their ability to command the support of the legislature.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]